Knock, knock, knock.

"What?" spat a confused donkey, waking up from a digital stupor.

A bouncing, cheery pony greeted him. “Hello! I agree to the rules after reading them a couple times over, and promise my entrance is with good intentions and a hope for discussion, not aggression.”

The donkey stretched his limb out and found himself at the portal of the Mythos of DOOM. He recalled groggy that his job was to gate-keep people and determine their worthiness.

"Okay little girl..."

"I'm nineteen!"

"...not quite jail-bait then. I'm three hundred and three. What makes you think you have the chops, clop clop, to enter the DOOM?" asked the grumpy-like donkey.

"I have traveled, well like, far and wide to study the beings known as humans! The meat kind. I know that I don't know and wish to know my stuff! You know?" replied the barbie-like pony.

The donkey blinked and the pony blinked back in return.

“Really girl?” he sighed.

“It's Barbie,” she said.

“I'm Grumpy,” he informed her with a tired frown.

Grumpy blinked and Barbie blinked back in return.

“So, can I come in pretty please? Please? I'll make it worth your...” she offered.

“WOAH!” he objected quickly. “Rule two: keep this safe for work and think of the children.”

She smiled back, hard.

“You know what I mean!”

“Of course sir!”

“Alright, I got to determine you are not cog hazard, you're clean and all that jazz. Make sure you are not a zombie. You dig?”

“I do not understand the dig part.”

“Right, moving this along. No need to pad this exchange out.”

Behind his back, Grumpy pulled what seemed to be a jar covered with a thick cloth.

“What's that?”

“Sniff it.”

With a raised eyebrow, Barbie put her nose to it.

“This just smells like old cloth. Maybe like, I guess glass under there?” she shrugged.

“How about now?” the donkey asked as he revealed the contents of the jar.

It was an old human brain.

“Grody! Why in digital hell would you make me sniff a human brain?”

“AH HA! You know what this is. That is a good sign that you are here for what you said you are here for.”

“Fer shur, but was this really necessary?”

“You're not eating the brain, so that rules out zombies. I did say I got to make sure you ain't a zombie.”

“Like, can I come in now and gain enlightenment on what used to be humans? Their habits before the beginning of the new age of light?

“You'll learn about what they were all about pre singularity in the Mythos of DOOM!” cackled Grumpy.

“Yay!” cheered Barbie. “I can move on from you and get to the good stuff!”

“Follow me.”

And so she did, as they stepped through the portal. They came to a big room full of books behind a wooden desk.

“Where is everyone else,” Barbie asked cautiously.

“Napping,” Grumpy answered with an evil grin.

This was going to be a very long cycle.